Fatal shooting of University of South Carolina student who tried to enter wrong home 'justifiable,' police say

Donofrio repeatedly knocked, banged and kicked on the front door "while manipulating the door handle" while trying to enter the home.

Donofrio broke a glass window on the front door "and reached inside to manipulate the doorknob"

Yeah, that's more than just trying to walk into the wrong house when you're blackout drunk, so I can see why they would consider it justified. But that's the word of the police, so we'll see if a different story comes out later.

Oh shit something very similar to this happened to my mom once. She’s an older woman who lives alone and terrified of everything. Yes, she owns a gun.

One night ~ 2-3 am a man knocked on her door and demanded to be let in. She’s terrified, grabs the gun. He moved around to different doors, knocking and banging and yelling to be let in. He started shaking the door handles. My mom called 911 and was hiding in a bathroom. They asked her to just wait, police were on the way.

Finally she goes out, sees the guy at a window, and pointed the gun at him…but the gun has a laser pointer when you squeeze the handle. So she screamed back that the red dot on his chest was about to be where she was going to shoot him.

He ran off. Police show up, say they found the kid - 20 - drunkenly stumbling around the neighborhood. The bar had just closed and he thought he was at his friend’s house. A week later he sent her a $20 gift card to a local restaurant with a note that said “Thank you for not shooting me.”

The cops said if she had shot him, she would have been legally within her rights.

Agree or disagree with any or all of this, I’m sorry for the family of the person who was killed. It’s just a terrible situation all around.

Relevant:

According to previously unreported details that police released about the incident Wednesday, Donofrio repeatedly knocked, banged and kicked on the front door "while manipulating the door handle" while trying to enter the home.

A female resident of the home called 911 as Donofrio kicked the door, while a male resident went to retrieve a firearm elsewhere in the home, the news release states. The homeowner owned the gun legally, “for the purpose of personal and home protection,” according to police.

While the woman was on the phone with police, Donofrio broke a glass window on the front door "and reached inside to manipulate the doorknob," at which point the male resident fired the shot through the broken window that struck Donofrio in his upper body, according to police.

Under those circumstances, I don't blame the homeowner for using a gun to defend himself and the other female resident. This guy was literally breaking into their home. If it had been me, I would have been terrified and very thankful to have a gun on hand for defense. I'm sure a lot of people here will protest to the shooting, but I would urge them to really think about what they would have done in such a situation. I don't know what Donofrio's reasons were for trying to break into the home, but they hardly matter; the fact is, he did try, and the residents of the home had every reason to think they were in danger. If we had multi-shot stun guns that could reliably incapacitate an intruder, I'd say he should have used that rather than a lethal weapon, but current stun guns aren't that reliable and only fire once before needing to be reloaded. That a life was lost is sad, but I agree that no criminal charges should be filed in this instance. However, I'm not saying that I entirely agree with the Castle doctrine on which this is based, as I'm not intimately familiar with it, but the general notion of being able to use lethal force to defend oneself against a home intruder I do agree with on principle.

I love not living in america

Goddamn, the United States really is a shithole country, isn't it? It's obvious that shooting was the homeowner's first resort, because this was a drunk guy who thought that it was his own house. Any sign that it was not, like lights going on, or yelling, would have at least made him pause in confusion.

But yeah, Americans be like killing somebody before even issuing a threat is totally justified.

Any other developed country and there wouldnt be a death involved.

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If someone is breaking into your home, you should defend yourself and your family with whatever means is available. The amount of people here saying you should have a polite conversation or comply with the robber's demands (even if that demand is to harm you) is bizarre.

usa_anthem_kazoo_earrape.mp3 playing in the background. This shit is abnormal in the rest of the world.

No wonder Americans are so infatuated with the second amendment!

Good - one less idiot walking the earth.

While the woman was on the phone with police, Donofrio broke a glass window on the front door "and reached inside to manipulate the doorknob," at which point the male resident fired the shot through the broken window that struck Donofrio in his upper body, according to police.

He wasn’t “trying to enter” he was literally breaking into the home.

I would’ve let off more than one shot at that point.

Ah yes, a young man trying to enter my house, instead of confronting him like a normal person I'll just fucking kill him

And he gets no punishment?! America is a failed state

Well, I guess South Carolina is going on my list of places that are too dangerous to ever visit.

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for all the non-Americans, here are the things you don't understand about why we say it was justified.

Mental illness is rampant here. The high productivity expectations have a serious toll on people. There aren't enough doctors to be even close to handle the scope of it. Many doctors offices are getting bought up by large companies who can and do pick the most lucrative clients.

Our justice system releases mentally ill people who are clearly dangerous because they haven't committed a big enough crime YET.

And people don't look out for one another much anymore. Combined with a misguided sense of independence, drunks are left to do things that friends in other countries would put a stop to.

This is why we fear random people, this is why drunk people manage to get into circumstances uncommon elsewhere. This is why we say the shooting was justified. We all think about how badly it could have gone if he didn't shoot, and it wasn't just a drunk guy at the wrong house.

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Kid accidentally enter wrong home this was Not Justified. Mother fuckers the law needs to be repealed and done over then.

Shooting someone just for entering or knocking on your door isn't an excuse to shoot to kill someone. Should at least give person a warning.

I hope that homeowner never finds peace again and better be glad it wasn't my kid.